1989 F350 4x4 front lower ball joints

Evansline

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I’m having a hard time finding front lower ball joints for my 1989 4x4 F350. Everyplace seems to have the uppers but not lower. Any suggestions? Thanks!
 

Nero

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As stated, should be king pins. I've used two of these kits, one on my truck and one on my dad's with good results.
 

Evansline

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Mechanic is telling me ball joints. But research indicates kingpins until 1991. Looks like I’ll just have to pick it up and do it myself. But, any chance Ford Canada changed earlier (VIN has a CAD production code). I just bought this and isnt passing inspection due to the “ball joint”
 

Nero

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Just look at it. If it looks like this, it's king pins.

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If it looks like it has a big castle nut on it, it's ball joints.
 

Evansline

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So I do have a ball joint setup. This is odd because the research I’ve found indicates Ford switched from kingpin to ball joint in 1992. So none of the big parts stores or dealers show lower ball joints in their books. Truck was never wrecked or axle replaced. Very strange. I think I am going to try ball joints for a 1992. Any other thoughts?
 

Meatloaf326

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So I do have a ball joint setup. This is odd because the research I’ve found indicates Ford switched from kingpin to ball joint in 1992. So none of the big parts stores or dealers show lower ball joints in their books. Truck was never wrecked or axle replaced. Very strange. I think I am going to try ball joints for a 1992. Any other thoughts?
Do you have a picture?
 

u2slow

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Axles can get swapped. Maybe the kingpin one ended up in a jeep build.

Regardless, the dana 60 balljoint set is the same for 92-04 Ford's and 94-99ish dodge.
 

Evansline

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Well now I look silly, but finally got to the bottom of this. The mechanic is 4 hours away, after multiple arguments finally got him to acknowledge it is Kingpin! Problem now is every shop I called says they can’t do it because they don’t have a “reamer tool”.

Doesn’t seem like anything needs to be reamed. Music City Trucks did a whole segment on Power Nation on the Dana 60 rebuild and kingpin seemed pretty easy once you break it loose.

As with everything, if you want something done just have to do it yourself, hard to find anyone that will put any effort into figuring stuff out these days.

Am I missing something? What needs to be teamed on this one?
 

Nero

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Ummm... Nothing? I didn't ream anything at least.... Just a simple socket set is needed. Oh and a 17mm I think hex head with a biiiiiiiig breaker bar to get the upper king pin cone off.
It's pretty simple, bearing cone and roller on the lower, couple of dust caps, a big spring and bushings.
 

Evansline

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I agree. I’m just gonna have to do it myself. Couldn’t get 3 Ford dealers to touch it. Pathetic, given it’s something a shade tree mechanic accountant like me can do!
 
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